Declaration to Submit (15 page)

“Why didn’t she—”

“I suggested that,” Reena said with a weak smile. “She told me that you probably wouldn’t listen to a submissive, especially an inexperienced one, but you would respect another Dominant.” Reena gave Mark a direct stare. “Frankly, I don’t think she was wrong.”

No, she’d been right. What stunned Mark was that she’d known. She’d stumbled over to that table of executives, and she’d known that at least two of them were Doms.

“And afterward?” Tony snapped.

“Afterward what? She asked me to keep quiet, and I did.” Reena shrugged.

Talk about being profiled. Nell had known him almost better than he knew himself. Damn it. Now she was gone.

Chapter Ten

“Wait. What? Slow down!” Nell listened to her frantic friend and couldn’t understand what she was saying.

“And that bastard Atticus actually picked me up and carried me into the office, lecturing me on professionalism. He won’t accept my resignation, and he told me if I try and find another job, he’ll cuff me to his desk for a week.” She wailed the last three words, and Nell had to suppress the first smile she’d cracked in twenty-four hours.

“He cares about you, Tori.”

“I know,” she answered in a small voice. “He scares me.”

The idea of Atticus Paulus being scary in any way, shape, or form was completely ridiculous to Nell, but she wasn’t going to say so. “Did Mark read the interview?”

“He was reading it when I left.” Tori was quiet for a minute, and then she said, “Are you okay, Nell? Would it make you feel better if I told you he looked miserable?”

It did, but she wasn’t going to admit it. “I have to go. Don’t be too hard on Atticus. He’s a good man.”

“I know. I love you.”

Nell looked at the phone. What did she just say? “I love you too.”

After Tori hung up, Nell did some thinking. She was still angry and hurt that Mark had accused her on such little evidence. Maybe she’d never get over it. But she still thought ConFed was a good thing for her coworkers. She knew it was all about the spin that was put on the story out now. Yarina had been vindictive when she’d interviewed with Pete. Hopefully, Nell’s interview would compare favorably, and the tide would turn.

As she glanced around her apartment, she knew she had to get out. The walls were closing in, and she was going to go crazy thinking about Mark, about ConFed, about everything. She grabbed her purse and headed out the door.

She crept into her favorite coffee shop and found a corner with her white mocha to brood.

“Excuse me.” A petite older woman with gray hair and a worn expression in her eyes interrupted Nell’s pity party.

“Yes?”

“You are Nell Armstrong, aren’t you?” the woman asked.

Nell tightened her lips and started to rise, but the woman blocked her way and sat down. “Please. I’m Danielle Conners. Your friend Gina said I might find you here. I’d like to speak to you.”

Mark’s mother. Nell barely recognized her from the earlier photos. This woman was small, thin, tired. A far contrast to the bleach-blonde, diamond-crusted executive’s wife she’d been in the past.

It didn’t matter. Whatever the woman had to say, it wouldn’t change anything. She met Danielle’s gaze and said nothing.

“I saw the newspapers,” Mrs. Conners said quietly. “Is Mark okay?”

“I don’t mean to be rude, Mrs. Conners, but why don’t you call him and ask him?” she said impatiently. What did she have to do with this?

The woman’s bitter smile was painful to see. “I’m afraid my son won’t take my calls.” She took a deep breath and seemed to brace herself. “I have information he needs to know.”

“Mrs. Conners—”

“I saw the way he looks at you.” She interrupted Nell and clasped her hands together. “He’s my only son, Ms. Armstrong. I know it may seem strange, but I watch him from a distance because I love him and I’m his mother. And I stay away from him because I love him and I’m his mother.”

What was there to say to that? Tell the woman about stalking laws in California? Nell kept her mouth shut. What the hell was wrong with her? This woman was obviously in emotional pain, and Nell just wanted to run away from it.

“I know how the
L.A. Times
connected Mark to his father.” She twisted her fingers together. “When Mark’s father was trying to get money together for his Internet venture, I was having an affair with my husband’s silent partner.” Her throat moved, and she closed her eyes. “I was so stupid.”

Those four words catapulted Nell back to Vegas on the plane when she’d said something similar and how Mark had reacted. Impulsively, Nell reached out and touched his mother’s hand.

She hooked her pinky around one of Nell’s fingers and continued. “He recorded several…times we had spent together. He blackmailed Marcus into accepting the blame for what happened.”

“Did Mark know?” Nell asked gently.

“No,” Danielle said emphatically. “Mark believes it was my need for the finer things in life that forced his father to risk that money.” Her lower lip trembled. “The truth is much sadder. Vic took the money, and when Marcus demanded it back, he threatened to release the recordings.” There were tears in her voice. “The money Marcus risked and lost was ours. Over three million dollars that Marcus had saved, meticulously planning for our future, was lost. He had hoped to invest the money in the business and then pay the shareholders, but the money was gone. He had nothing. We had nothing.” She bit her lip. “We agreed to let the story stand and to let Junior walk away. He thinks we don’t care, but we couldn’t tell him the truth.”

“Why not? It’s been fifteen years,” Nell said. “Perhaps the truth should come out.”

Her faded blue eyes met Nell’s. “That’s why I’m here. Mark has been set up, and I didn’t realize it until it was too late. I couldn’t believe he would hate me so much after all these years.”

“Who, Mark?”

“No, the man I had an affair with,” she said. “Victor Tourine.”

* * * *

Nothing. Mark didn’t care about any of it. Stock in ConFed rose due directly from Nell’s interview. Apparently, giving M. Conners a human face was good for business. People loved the romantic fairy tale of a secretary in love with her boss.

The irony didn’t escape him that the media saved his career and his business, but the woman he loved wouldn’t answer his damn calls. Not that he could blame her.

His distrust of people, fear of judgment, and reluctance to admit he loved Nell beyond reason had destroyed the very love he needed. Now, he remained in his office and tried to work, but all he could see was Nell’s sweet curves bent over his desk.

He heard the door to the stairwell open. When he checked his watch, he was surprised to see it was late, almost ten.

When the door to his office opened, he was stunned when Victor Tourine, the former Sunsoon president, strode into the room. Of course. Yarina was his daughter, and Victor would want to protect her. But the man must have known that Yarina’s expenditures were killing his company. So why did he allow it to continue?

“I see you haven’t figured it all out.” Victor seemed so confident. He must have been a handsome man at one time. In his fifties, he hadn’t aged well, time and too much money taking its toll on him.

“Let’s just say I get the irony of a security software company selling corporate espionage equipment on the side, but I don’t see the point of destroying the company to do it.” Mark stayed behind his desk, sensing animosity from the man.

“Yarina likes the risk. And the money,” he said. Something about the way Victor moved put Mark on high alert.

It was almost anticlimactic when the former CEO produced a gun. Mark raised his eyebrows. “Murder? Really? Last I checked, you were still worth ten million. You didn’t lose anything when ConFed took over.”

Tourine’s smile was smug. “This isn’t about you, Junior.”

Mark froze and stared at the man. No one called him Junior. No one. “Oh?” He managed to get that one word out.

“A man like me shouldn’t fall in love, Junior. But I did. And she loved me too.” Tourine’s knuckles were white on the gun’s handle. “The only thing in the way was a pesky husband and a selfish brat. She chose them. Even when I took everything from that bastard she was married to, she stayed with them.” His face had a pinched look. “For a time, it was enough to see her poor and miserable, to see her brat kid reject her and walk away. But then, that little shit started having success and making money. I dangled the bait, and you snapped it up.”

Mark thought he was going to be sick. It all came back to his father and his mother. And this man had orchestrated everything. It was clear to him now that Mark had been manipulated into buying the company. The story in the newspapers that made the board demand his resignation, the revelation of his past were all part of a plan to hurt his mother. He saw red. He didn’t care about the gun. He didn’t care about anything but getting his hands around the bastard’s neck.

Victor didn’t seem to realize Mark was about to kill him. He kept talking. “It was so easy, really. Make sure the records were available. Of course, Nell might have exposed the whole thing, but as conscientious as she is, she’s loyal to her people.” He grinned and pointed the gun. “I knew you couldn’t resist the chance to come back to L.A., to make something of yourself here to blot out your father’s failure. But you didn’t. So you killed yourself.”

“That’s your plan?” Mark laughed. “All this to get back at my mother? Elaborate but rather pointless, isn’t it?”

The man’s smile faded. “Oh, I get so much from your death. Suicide is bad for business. I plan to destroy your partner after you’re gone. And little Nell? She’ll be devastated. She loves you. I read it in the newspaper, so it must be true. Reena Barrett? I plan to make sure she never sees a corner office again. But best of all, Danielle will be a wreck. Her only son will be dead.”

“Vic.”

Mark couldn’t believe it. It was like seeing a ghost. His mother, once so confident, so beautiful, stood in the doorway, now a faded woman with sadness in her eyes. Behind her, the woman he couldn’t live without, the woman he loved, Nell.

“You’re just in time, Danielle.” Victor’s voice shook.

His mother stepped forward and put her hand on Victor’s arm. “Vic, please. Haven’t we all hurt enough?”

There was an ugly shine in Victor’s muddy brown eyes. “Not you. I can remember every word you said as you left me, how you told me I’d been a mistake, how your family needed you.” He stuck his face in hers. “They won’t need you now. Look at you. You’re a wreck, old and broken-down. I’m just putting the last nail in the coffin.”

Mark’s mother held Victor’s gaze steadily, without fear. It made Mark proud. “You’re not going to hurt anyone else. It’s over, Vic.”

“Not for you.” Victor raised his arm and pointed the gun at Mark. In slow motion, Mark watched as Nell and his mother tackled Victor. The gun went off, a strange, muffled sound.

“Nell!” He shouted and ran to her prone form.

She sat up and pushed him away. “I’m fine. Danielle. Danielle? Are you okay?”

Blood seeped from his mother’s shoulder. Fuck. No. He dropped to his knees beside the woman he’d ignored for fifteen years and gently lifted her head. Victor Tourine seemed stunned, huddled in a corner, the gun on the floor beside Mark’s mother. Vaguely, he heard Nell calling 911. His heart was shattered, numb. “Mom,” he said and pressed his forehead to hers.

“Junior, I love you. I always have. We both do. I’m so sorry.” Her voice was small and quiet.

“No, Mom. I’m sorry. I didn’t listen. I was so hurt and so angry.” He stroked her hair, and for the first time in a long time, he prayed.

* * * *

“Why do you always avoid him?” Danielle asked Nell. The woman wouldn’t let it go. Nell came to see her in the hospital, but she had no intention of seeing Mark. It was her fault that she’d allowed herself to fall in love with him, not his. Besides, he had enough to deal with.

“I don’t avoid him.” Okay, she was lying. But she didn’t do it intentionally. She just knew his schedule and when he’d be by the hospital, and timed her visits accordingly.

“He asked about you again,” Marcus Conners said from the chair next to Danielle’s bed. Since Victor’s arrest, Marcus looked less…defeated. He and Danielle had kept their silence for so long, blaming themselves, that it was a relief to let the truth come out.

“He just misses his perfect secretary,” Nell said calmly.

“Nell, talk to him,” Danielle said. “He loves you, but he thinks you’re angry with him, that you won’t forgive him.” Danielle gripped Marcus’s hand. “Don’t make him wait, Nell. Please?”

“Never could resist her begging,” Marcus said with a twinkle in his eyes. “Don’t know how you can.”

Nell threw up her hands. “Fine. I’ll go talk to him.”

Danielle’s smug expression made Nell grind her teeth.

* * * *

Tori’s head snapped up when Nell exited the elevator and headed toward Mark’s office. “Oh, thank God!” She rushed from her desk and hugged Nell.

Nell laughed and hugged her back. “Is he being difficult?”

“He’s been a complete dick!” She shot a glance at Atticus’s closed door. “He makes King Atticus look positively sweet.”

“Well, I’d better get this over with.” She turned away and then glanced over her shoulder. “By the way, I’d like more info on King Atticus. Preferably over a bottle of Crown Royal.”

Tori grinned. “The last time we drank whiskey, you ended up in a strange hotel room.”

Nell giggled. “Good point.” She took a deep breath. “Here goes nothing.”

She opened the door to his office and was surprised to see he wasn’t behind his desk. As she closed the door behind her, she could hear him cursing to her right.

“Damn it, Tori, that damn file cabinet is stuck again. I told you to call—” He stopped when he saw her.

Nell cleared her throat. “Your father said—”

She didn’t get any further. He bounded to his feet and took her in his arms. His mouth was on hers before she could protest, and he pressed her against the file cabinet, causing files and papers to scatter.

The feel of him was so good. There was no thought in her mind of rejecting him or stopping him. She’d missed him. She loved him.